Throughout this long and often acrimonious referendum campaign, the most striking fact about the Remainers is that they have failed to articulate a single positive reason for staying in the EU.

Instead, they have subjected voters to a barrage of scaremongering, with the aid of a once proudly independent Civil Service, pinning all their hopes on persuading the British people that the dangers of withdrawing from Brussels outweigh the many drawbacks of belonging to it.

In doing so, they have had to seek the support of the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, Ed Miliband, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair — from the very party voters rightly rejected at the last election on the grounds that they couldn’t be trusted.

But then the EU is an edifice built on lies — starting with the blatant untruth, peddled when we signed up to the Common Market in 1973, that we were joining nothing more threatening than a tariff-free trading zone, which would involve no sacrifice of sovereignty.

More than 40 years on, some 50 or 60 per cent of our laws and 70 per cent of regulations are dictated to us by Brussels, whose power is only matched by its incompetence, corruption and hunger to impose ever more statist regulations on 28 utterly diverse member nations.

And though we do less than 10 per cent of our total business with the EU — with 80 per cent of our trade being within the UK — every firm in the country must submit to its throttling red tape.

Then there’s the great lie that the EU is a guarantor of prosperity for its members. In truth, while the economies of other countries have forged ahead, the Continent’s share of global commerce has been shrinking for decades. Meanwhile, the proportion of the UK’s overseas trade that we conduct with our partner nations has actually declined since we joined, from about 55 to 45 per cent.

As for the 19 countries locked into the catastrophic, one-size-fits-all single currency — the very apotheosis of the European dream of ever closer political and economic union — just ask the jobless young people of Greece, Spain or France if the euro has underpinned their prosperity.

Indeed, in Greece, crushed in bankruptcy by arrogant German intransigence, daily living is a nightmare. In other parts of southern Europe, youth unemployment is a terrifying 50 per cent and more, with half a generation’s prospects of a decent life sacrificed on the altar of EU empire-building.

Or take Italy, a country with an economy roughly comparable in size to our own. Its growth rate over the past eight years has been just 3 per cent. In the same period, free from the shackles of the euro, Britain has grown 35 per cent.

Yet far from realising their mistake and helping those whose lives have been laid waste by the single currency, Europe’s political elites are pressing ahead with the project, determined — in the face of bitter opposition from the people — to achieve ever closer political and economic union.

Next, there’s the lie that the EU is popular with those it governs, spreading peace and harmony between nations. Certainly, this was among its founding fathers’ dreams, when Europe lay ravaged by World War II. The reality has turned out very differently.

A survey earlier this year by Pew, the highly respected U.S. think tank, found that 61 per cent in France had unfavourable feelings about Brussels, as did 71 per cent of Greeks and 48 per cent of Spaniards. Even in Germany, whose exports have benefited from the weak euro, 44 per cent were against the EU.

Boris Johnson stole the debate last night with his closing speech urging voters to make Thursday Britain’s ‘Independence Day ‘ — a rousing call for democracy, self-belief and sovereignty which was booed by Remain supporters.

Throughout the BBC’s debate on membership of the European Union (EU) Boris Johnson was attacked by the Remain team. His successor as Mayor of London, Labour’s Sadiq Khan, was particularly vociferous, accusing his predecessor of running “Project Hate” and telling “big fat lies”.

At one point David Dimbleby — the presenter charged with keeping the debaters and Wembley Arena’s 6,000 strong audience in control — even felt the need to tell Mr. Khan to “cool it”.

Mr. Johnson’s Conservative Party colleague and Member of the Scottish Parliament, Ruth Davidson, was equally vociferous with her broadsides against Mr. Johnson. As well as reciting the Remain campaign’s talking points at length, the Scottish Tory leader accused him of not caring about Britain’s workers.

In a recurrent theme, Mr. Johnson responded: “They are back to Project Fear within moments. They have nothing positive to say.”

Mr. Khan and Trades Union Congress General Secretary Frances O’Grady claimed that only the EU guarantees workers’ rights from being curtailed by Tory governments.

Leading Labour Brexiteer Gisela Stuart struck back: “The most important right is the right to a job and as long as we are shackled to a failing Eurozone, liable to bailout after bailout, we will not succeed.”

Ms. Davidson was so frustrated by her Leave opponents at one point that she was driven to state: “It’s not the Boris show.”